


Nexotraps

by AnxiousAnteater



Category: Nexomon, Nexomon: Extinction (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, and nexotraps, authors interpretation of how certain things work in the nexomon world, i honestly dont know what to tag this with, im also still new w tags so hmu if sms off, lots of world mechanics and lore headcanons present, specfically nexo-gloves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29773722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnxiousAnteater/pseuds/AnxiousAnteater
Summary: The gang, still too young to become tamers, sneak into the storage room to play around with some Nexo-Gloves. Things do not go as planned.
Kudos: 3





	Nexotraps

**Author's Note:**

> It's taking me a while to get back into writing. I'm tired of seeing this in my drafts though, so its going out now as-is. Also, if any of you find the scenario in this fic to be oddly similar to a tumblr post, no you didn't <3

Dust erupted into the air as a burlap sack hit the floor with a loud _thunk_ , the old wooden floorboards shaking under its weight.

“Ross!” Nora said, slapping a hand over her face. “Will you be quiet? One of the adults will hear us!”

“Oh, calm down Nora, it’s fine.” Ross said, kneeling down in front of a weathered dorm trunk and inspecting the lock. “Besides, Coco’s keeping watch.” The old chest seemed to be fixed with a brand new padlock, but a lucky first try revealed that no one had bothered to scramble the code. He took the lock off with ease and flicked up the latches.

Eno and Nora watched as their friend pushed the lid open, grunting the entire time and nearly dropping it at one point. When he let it fall back and slam against wall in favor of digging at the contents inside the trunk, Eno cast a cautionary glance over his shoulder towards the door.

Coco was holding his post, leaving the door open just wide enough for him to peek into the hallway. His ears were pushed back though, and he looked away just long enough to glare at Ross.

“Aha! I told you they were in here!” Ross pulled himself back out of the trunk, holding a couple of Nexo-Gloves in one hand and a colorful variety of Nexotraps in the other.

Nora’s eyes widened. “Oh no…”

“Oh no what?” He strapped on one of the gloves, the fingers on the capture device flopping over until he roughly tugged it down to fit. “Don’t tell me you’re chickening out now?”

“Ross, we could get in serious trouble if they catch us using these.”

“You knew that from the beginning.” Coco called from across the room, leaning against the door frame, arms folded.

“Yeah! So why tag along if you’re so worried about getting in trouble?” Ross asked as he stood up. He closed one eye and began aiming the glove around.

“Honestly? I didn’t expect you to be _right_ when you said they stowed them away here.”

Ross didn’t respond to that, too busy pointing at random things around the room while badly mimicking Nexotrap launching sounds.

Coco wandered over to the others, stopping next to where Eno sat. “I wonder how these gloves work.” He picked one up, rotating it around to peer inside the pyramid shaped hole sticking out of the top of the glove. “They look so simple.”

“From what I’ve read, most of the tech is inside the trap itself.” Nora said, picking up one of the Nexotraps. “When a trap is plugged into a Nexo-Glove, it activates the scanner on the glove which then detects any un-captured Nexomon in its immediate area.” She took one of the stray Nexo-Gloves and slipped it on, this one also being too big for a child’s hand. She stuck the trap in, the screen just below the launcher changing to a lovely shade of pink. “If I recall correctly, you just clench your fist and these two sets of nubs on the knuckle line detect that movement, and send the trap flying!” She demonstrated while pointing the glove at the wall.

But the trap didn’t launch.

She tried again, this time with a quick flick of the wrist. Nothing. She gave her hand a few more reflexive clenches, looking the glove over as she did so. “Huh. Maybe it only works when it has an actual target?”

“Probably.” Coco said. “I’m sure the inventors had the foresight to prevent idiots from wasting traps when they point their Nexo-Gloves around at everything.”

“Oh yeah!” Ross suddenly exclaimed. “I don’t have a trap in this thing yet!” He bent down to pick up one from the pile, choosing a standard Nexotrap. “Wow, these things are cool! I can’t wait to become a tamer.” He started making the sounds again, each one sounding less and less like the right noise. “My team is going to have the best Nexomon! We’ll be super strong and take down Tyrants left and right!”

“Uh-huh sure, Ross.” Nora said. “Just be careful with that.”

“Oh! I should probably go back to watching the door.” Coco said.

As the orange cat rushed back his post, Ross turned on his heels, pretending to launch the trap at him. “Psshwah! Gotcha! Pew, pew, pew!” He aimed at the sconce on the wall, the wooden crates on the floor, and the vase on the table. Then he set his sights on Eno, who was looking over the pink Nexotrap that Nora had tried using earlier.

Eno, in many ways, looked just like a Nexomon. Particularly a Singletti. He had green hair that was complimented with some leaf-like growth that grew out of the back of his head and wrapped up over the top to rest on his forehead. Aside from that blatantly inhuman oddity right there, Eno also chose to wear a long coat that was green and white in the front, and purple in the back. It was adorned with purple tufts across the shoulders and down nearly every edge on the coat, much like a Singletti. The collar was also made of the same purple material, wrapping all the way around to a leaf-vein patterned scarf in the front. To complete the Trip Into Uncanny Valley Outfit, Eno wore white slacks and green gloves. If one was to look at him too quickly, they could easily mistake him for a very short Singletti.

Ross and the others all thought the outfit was on purpose, but Eno would always deny the resemblances to the common plant-type Nexomon. Ross never really understood why though, Singletti was a pretty cool Nexomon. But then again, he _had_ heard of people who would cosplay as Nexomon full time, and it wasn’t always a positive topic.

He closed one eye and aimed the glove right at Eno’s head, not noticing the glow of the scanner screen grow brighter. “Pow!” He clenched his fist and the trap when flying forward.

Eno had just enough time to reflexively shrink down behind his scarf.

Before the trap could get close enough to hit him, it split open with an explosive force, its respective sides moving out to cover various angles around Eno. When they all aligned, he disappeared into a vortex of energy.

Ross screamed.

Nora screamed.

Coco turned around. “Wh– Eno? ENO!”

“Ross _, w_ _hat did you do_?” Nora cried.

“I didn’t do anything!”

Coco ran over, stopping just short of the energy field. Static sparked in the air as the trap tried to do its job. “Don’t just stand there, Ross! STOP IT!”

“I- I’m trying!” Ross looked down at the Nexo-Glove, then started tapping at the odd symbols displayed on screen at the base of the glove. With each successful tap, the triangular pieces of the trap start to swirl around Eno faster.

“NO! Don’t do _that!_ _S_ top that!” Nora said, grabbing the Nexo-Glove. “That’s only helping the trap catch him!”

All three of them were yelling now, Coco watching helplessly as the orb of light that was his friend gradually grew smaller, while Ross and Nora were stuck in a loop of continuing to tap the screen and trying to rip the Nexo-Glove off.

The door to the room suddenly burst open, the head of the orphanage, a caregiver, and a teacher standing in the doorway. “WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?” Ulrich demanded, voice booming like an earthquake, but lacking any hostility. He stopped the door from swinging back into him with a sturdy arm.

“Mr. Ulrich, help!” Ross cried, quite literally, as tears were streaming down his face. “Eno’s stuck in a Nexomon trap!”

A look of horror flashed across their mentor’s face. “ _Wh_ _at_?”

Before any of the adults could even think to do anything about the situation, the orb of light suddenly exploded, causing everyone to duck and cover. The sides of the trap shattered in the process, shards of metal and glass scattering as the light dissipated.

Left in the wake of the discharge was Eno, laying face down on the floor.

Ulrich tossed an ice pack up and down in his hand as he headed up the stairs to his office, taking a quick glance to be sure that all four kids were already present and seated. As he passed around to the other side of the table, he paused briefly to place a hand on Eno’s shoulder, silently giving him the ice pack.

Eno smiled and took it, signing a “thank you” before swapping it out with the one he had been given earlier.

“Now then,” Ulrich started, sitting down in his chair slowly, “setting aside the fact that you four somehow ended up with the storage room key and broke into it, would anyone care to explain what happened?”

Nora sat with both elbows on the table, head in her hands.

Ross was sniffling, arms crossed and averted eyes still burning red.

Coco was mirroring Eno, leaning down in his seat, propping his head up with one paw while the other tapped the arm of the chair.

They all said nothing.

Ulrich sighed and gave them a moment more before saying, “Ross. I know you’re the one who stole the key. Should I assume this was all your idea?”

Ross crossed his arms even tighter, frowning and turning to hide away in the chair.

“No.” Nora said, dropping her arms down. “It’s not completely Ross’ fault. I was telling the boys earlier today about how the Guild had taken down another Tyrant. We got really excited about it and were talking about how we couldn’t wait to be tamers ourselves. Then Ross was like ‘Oh, hey! I figured out where they’re hiding the capture devices! We should go practice!’” She had made a face and lowered her voice a bit to mimic Ross. “I told him it was a stupid idea–”

“I did too.” Coco added.

“Yeah, but he was already off breaking into the storage room. So we just tagged along.”

Ulrich nodded. “I figured that much.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of the Nexotrap that has been used earlier. “What happened with this though?” The kids looked at it and grimaced.

“Well... Ross was messing around with the glove and shot a trap at Eno.”

“Not on purpose.” Ross said hastily. “It was an accident! I didn’t think it’d actually work.”

“But it did.” Ulrich said.

A silence fell over the room. How the hell was he going to explain this? Ulrich turned to study the piece of the trap in the sunlight that came through the window. Standard quality for a standard Nexotrap. He could tell by the thickness that this one was not artisan made. If he had the whole thing, he could get a better gauge of its quality, but for a mass-produced trap, this one seemed like it was one that passed testing protocols. Not that the kids would know that though.

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Ross asked.

“For breaking into an off-limits room with a key that was hidden in a place that only staff knew about?” Ulrich met Ross’s gaze. “Yes.”

Coco groaned, slinking down in his chair more. “Why do I hang out with you guys?”

“I understand your curiosity and excitement to become members of the Guild.” Ulrich continued. “But there is a reason for the age limit. You still have a few more years left before the Guild will even consider taking on any of you.”

“I know that.” Ross said, trying to wipe away the tears he left to dry on his cheeks. “But why can’t we practice ahead of time?”

“Nexo-Gloves are expensive pieces of technology that are not for children. Nexomon taming in general is dangerous and not for children.”

“What difference does a few years make, then?” Coco asked. “We’re still kids at fifteen.”

Ulrich held back a smile. “Don’t think about it too hard.”

Nora shook her head. “But Mr. Ulrich, why did the Nexotrap work on Eno? I thought Nexotraps only worked on, well, Nexomon.”

Their mentor sat back. “If made correctly, they _do_ only work on Nexomon.” He said. “But even machine-made Nexotraps have the chance to be defective.”

“Defective traps work on _humans_?” Ross asked.

“They can and can’t. If defective, a trap may detect any living thing as a ‘Nexomon’ and try to capture it, but unless the target is actually a Nexomon, the trap cannot succeed. It’ll either break when the target tries to escape, or it’ll break itself after using up all of the capture energy, releasing the target in the process.”

“Oh…”

“This is also why we hide these from you kids.” Ulrich pushed his chair back and stood up. “The Guild supplies us with Nexotraps, but since it’s free and they don’t want to lose any profits, they often give us the rejects from the factory.”

“That seems kinda dangerous.” Nora said.

“You’re telling me.” He stared out the window at the yard below, stroking his beard. He was going to have to keep a closer eye on Eno now that this had happened. How did that trap even work when Eno was in his human form? No doubt it was able to tell what he really was, but being half human wasn’t enough to stop it? Or maybe being half human was exactly what stopped it from succeeding in the capture.

Ulrich frowned. A lowly human owning the next King of Monsters... _Ross_ owning the _lone_ _heir to Omnicron’s throne_. Humanity’s own technology was truly a threat to both themselves and Nexomon in an insufferably scary way.

He felt a headache coming on. “You kids are dismissed.”

“But, aren’t we in trou–” Nora started, but Ross elbowed her, “Ow! Ross!”

“I’ll find a punishment suitable for you all later. Leave, or you’ll miss dinner.”

“OH, that right. Its dinnertime!” Ross jumped out of his chair, a wide grin spreading across his face as he turned to Nora. “Come on, let’s go eat!”

“That’s quite an attitude change.” Coco remarked, waiting for Eno before following the other two out of the room.

Ulrich brought a hand up to his head, thumb and middle finger rubbing his temples. He was also going to have to find a new hiding spot for the Nexo-Gloves. And the storage room key. _Again_.

**Author's Note:**

> Coco pops up after the screen fades to black: "How does a ghost get a headache?"


End file.
